Rankings und Indikatoren — hilfreiche Kennzahlen oder Verkürzungen mit fatalen Folgen?

Die Verdichtung von Informationen zu einer Kennzahl scheint praktisch: Sie erleichtert den globalen Vergleich verschiedener L?nder. Aus der Positionierung innerhalb eines Rankings werden wirtschaftspolitische Empfehlungen abgeleitet. Der Politik wird signalisiert, genau an den Einzelkennziffern zu drehen, die im jeweiligen Ranking enthalten sind. Welche Vor- und Nachteile mit Indikatoren und Indikatorensystemen verbunden sind, diskutierten die Autoren im Rahmen der Panelsitzung, die der Wirtschaftsdienst anl?sslich der Jahrestagung des Vereins für Socialpolitik 2011 organisiert hat.     

Trends als Katalysator einer Marketingkarriere

Trends, echte Innovationen und sich schnell überholende Modewellen bieten Chancen und Gefahren zugleich für Karrieren im Marketing. Insbesondere Führungskr?fte im Marketing sind mit einer gewissen Schnelllebigkeit konfrontiert. Diese ist durchaus Grund genug für Karrierepfade, die nichts mit einer typischen Karriereplanung, wie sie in anderen betriebswirtschaftlichen Disziplinen heute oftmals noch üblich sind, zu tun haben. Der folgende Beitrag widmet sich dem Zusammenwirken von Trends und Karrieren vor dem Hintergrund der Markenführung als Fachthema im Grenzgebiet zwischen Marketing und Unternehmensführung.     

Consumers' inferences about quality across diverse service providers

When consumers encounter different services as part of the same service experience they may use information about one group of service providers to draw inferences about the quality they expect to receive from another group of service providers. This research identifies the conditions under which information about the quality of one type of service (e.g., a hotel's front desk) influences quality perceptions of another type of service (e.g., a hotel's tour services). Results show that consumers' beliefs about managerial control influence generalizations across service providers. Also, consumers infer managerial control from the spatial proximity between the premises of the service providers. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Impact of AIDS on Family Composition,Welfare, and Investment: Evidence from Uganda*

Although availability of quantitative information on the extent of HIV/AIDS in Africa is improving, the socio‐economic implications of the epidemic remain poorly understood. This paper explores this issue for Uganda focusing on households who received foster children between 1992 and 2000, a phenomenon that affected more than 15% of households. The authors find that addition of a foster child resulted in significant reductions of per capita consumption, income, and household investment which were more pronounced for the poor. Initial disadvantages in foster children's access to education for this group were overcome in the course of UPE implementation, while new inequalities have emerged in access to health services. Foster children's ability to access services will thus be affected by the broader policy environment as well as programs more specifically targeted at this group.     

Tax Loss Carryovers in a Competitive Environment*

The fact that incumbent firms can immediately deduct research and development (R&D) investments from taxable income is generally believed to give them a strategic advantage over new firms that cannot deduct the investment cost, but instead generate a net operating tax loss carryover. Using an analytical model, we show that this conventional wisdom need not hold in a competitive environment. We examine operating and investment decisions in a duopolistic industry in which an initial investment in R&D yields an immediate tax benefit for one firm, but creates a net operating loss carryover for the other firm. If both firms invest in R&D, the firm with the net operating loss carryover makes more aggressive capital investment decisions following successful R&D. This may deter the incumbent firm from investing in R&D despite the lower aftertax costs of this investment. Changing the tax loss carryover rules would thus not only affects start‐up or loss firms, but would also affect the investment decisions of profitable firms in the same industry.     

The Role of Trade Policies in Building Regional Value Chains – Some Preliminary Evidence From Africa

Regional value chains (RVCs) are considered as an important step towards greater integration into global value chains (GVCs), but African countries trade very little value added with each other. Based on the UNCTAD‐Eora GVC database, this paper estimates a panel model from 2006 to 2012 for 37 African countries and sheds light on the role of trade costs in building RVCs in Africa. First evidence is provided for a significantly negative effect on foreign value added of charged tariffs on capital goods and higher time to trade. In addition, higher regulatory quality and a stronger telecommunication infrastructure seem to be positively correlated with a country's ability to participate in RVCs.